The Adoption and Children Act Register (Search and Inspection) (Pilot) Regulations 2014

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations make provision to pilot the search and inspection of the Adoption and Children Act Register (“the register”) by prospective adopters that an adoption agency listed in the Schedule is satisfied are suitable to adopt a child. They come into force on the second day after the day on which they are made.

They are made under section 128A of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 which was inserted by the Children and Families Act 2014.

Regulation 2 defines ‘P’ as a prospective adopter that one of the adoption agencies listed in the Schedule is satisfied is suitable to adopt a child. This ensures that only prospective adopters approved as suitable to adopt by those adoption agencies are able to take part in the pilot and search and inspect the register.

Regulation 3 provides that where the Secretary of State has made arrangements with an organisation under section 126(1) of the Act, references to the Secretary of State must be read as references to the ‘registration organisation’.

Regulation 4 provides for the search and inspection of the register by P. P may search and inspect specified information held in Part 1 of the register (regulation 4(2)). If P has sent the register written confirmation from the appropriate adoption agency that they would be willing to have a child placed with them for whom a local authority is considering adoption, P may search and inspect specified information held in Part 2 of the register (regulation 4(3)).

Regulation 5 prescribes the steps to be taken by P in respect of information received as a result of searching or inspecting the register.

A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.